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Since Asia comprises a large portion of the World’s popula-
tion, and more than 40% of all the foods in the world occur
in Asia, a large number of people are affected by disasters
(Fig. 14). More than 40% of the people killed by natural di-
sasters are killed in Asia (Fig. 15). In the ten-year period from 1999–2008, 402 foods were recorded in Africa, 342 in the Americas, 259 in Europe and 649 in Asia. In the same time period close to 1 billion people were affected by foods in Asia whereas the corresponding fgures for Europe were around 4 million, for the Americas 28 million and Africa 22 million. The vast majority of people either injured, made homeless or otherwise affected by natural disasters on a global basis, i.e. 80–90% live in Asia. As a rough estimate foods appear to cause 20–25% of all deaths associated with natural disasters across Asia (World Disaster Report, 2009, USAID, 2007, UNU-IAS, 2008).

QanatA qanat is a water management system used to secure reliable water supply to human settlements or irrigation in semi-arid and arid regions. Probably originating in Persia, the qanat system has been adopted and developed ...

By Riccardo Pravettoni

Glacier recession and expansion in Hindu Kush-Himalayas and Central AsiaAveraged over their entire areas, within the period 1960–
2003 glaciers in Patagonia and Alaska have thinned by ap-
proximately 35 m and 25 m, respectively, whereas high
mountain glaciers in Asia have thinned by over...

By Riccardo Pravettoni

Glacier cumulative mass balanceCompilation of available data (Fig. 1) shows that most mountain glaciers are losing mass, and that the overall rate of mass loss has increased in the last decade. For the last decade the highest mass loss per unit area h...

By Riccardo Pravettoni

Glacier Lake Outburst FloodsCumulative frequency graph of GLOFs in Nepal,
Bhutan and Tibet. The best-ft line suggests an increase in
GLOF frequency through time, although older events may be
under-reported. GLOFs also took place in Patagonia,...

By Riccardo Pravettoni

Glacier shrinkage in hypothetical river basinsDownstream variation in the impact of glacier recession is
illustrated in Figure 5, which shows modelled river fows for
idealized catchments under climates representative of the
western and eastern Himalaya and a 0....

Recent flood events in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya regionSince Asia comprises a large portion of the World’s popula-
tion, and more than 40% of all the foods in the world occur
in Asia, a large number of people are affected by disasters
(Fig. 14). More than 40% of the peo...

By Riccardo Pravettoni

Seasonal patterns of precipitation and runoffThe infuence of glaciers on seasonal distribution of river
fow is strongly dependent on annual temperature and precipitation cycles, and the proportion of the catchment occupied by glacier ice. Figure 4 compares precip...